Team Fortress 2

Same here...

Maybe Valve's actually gonna knowledge the game's existence again?

The irony in all this? Apparently whoever leaked the information to allow the hackers to do these hazardous things to TF2 was a part of Tyler McVicker's (of Valve News Network) Modding Community; they had basically begun doing Custom Updates to try to keep TF2 alive, and whoever this person who leaked it on 4Chan was apparently on that team until yesterday because they were toxic and leaked this information as revenge. (NOTE: I got this information from the TF2 Reddit, I can't verify it myself.)

In people's attempts to save TF2, they may have killed it once and for all.

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Apr 22nd 2020 at 5:23:46 AM

I wonder what's next. It's such a great IP, it's sad to see it languishing like this and it'd be even sadder if this dealt the killing blow.

I guess that would explain the aimbotting Sniper I fought a few hours ago who was farting party balloons, spinning his upper torso like someone tilted a GoldenEye cartridge, and filling the chat log with white-text remarks about VAC.

Killed him with splash damage from a rocket fired around the corner, then he got kicked and we kept playing. Good game, came down to the very last point on Frontier.

Tacitus, I would advise you to scan your computer for viruses immediately. The hackers have the potential to infest your computer with viruses for their own nefarious purposes.

Quick scans came up negative, happily, full scan's still ongoing (EDIT: also negative). Also, according to the megathread on the forums, this looks to affect Counter-Strike more than TF2, and is more about cheats than sapping computers. Valve doesn't seem too concerned either.

Mostly I'm annoyed this is happening right when I'm trying to get back into the game, especially after spending a few literal dollars on the Market making my mercs look fresh. The non-hat cosmetics that have come out in the past few years are pretty slick.

Edited by Tacitus on Apr 22nd 2020 at 10:02:15 AM

Valve says that TF2 players has no need to be alarmed.

Edited by Eldrake on Apr 23rd 2020 at 9:44:00 PM

yeah and china says they've fixed covid

Joke's on you, I haven't played TF 2 in years!

The Creator.tf team (of which Tyler's the head of) apparently just released an update for their Custom Server. On the one hand, the stuff looks interesting. On the other hand, it addresses nothing about the leaks from his team and the hacking that's the result, and he may or may not be deleting posts that want him to talk about it.

I don't blame Tyler for what's happened, but this feels kind of off that he didn't even mention anything about it. Maybe he'll bring it up in the near future?

Just played a rather good casual Payload match in Badwater Basin. We shut them out of the first point, but they nearly held us at the second point, we only broke through with seconds to spare. We kept our momentum through point three, nearly lost our Engie camp to a counter-push, but after some Spy work or something I couldn't keep track of because I was desperately healing people, we managed to get half the team on the cart to roll it to victory while the Reds were mostly respawning, with just over a minute on the clock.

It was interesting because on the one hand, we had three Snipers because of course we did, but there were also two or three folks with headphones who were carefully coordinating with each other to great effect. Or so I assume, because again I was busy being a healslut on the cart.

No aimbots, no chat spam, nobody took control of my computer to steal my hats or anything.

You know, come to think of it, I kind of miss playing Stop That Tank.

I should see if the server for it is still running.

Valve pays tribute to Rick May by updating the game with new menu music and a Soldier statue on multiple maps.

...

The Equalizer/Escape Plan split wouldn't have to be needed if the old weapon just got the Marked for Death attribute the Escape Plan boasts; it'd had been quite balanced and engaging.

"Work is ongoing" to tackle the swarm of racist/homophobic bots, Valve says.

Currently players can disable both Voice and Text chats, and "certain new accounts" will have restrictions placed upon them to limit what they can do. There's a worry that newer players might have this turned against them, but I guess it's about time we deal with the bots.

You'd think it'd be easy to just program in an automated ban for someone spamming text chat super fast. Most bots and cheaters do that to prevent people from communicating.

At least the bots are finally being dealt with in some form.

Edited by Karxrida on Jun 17th 2020 at 10:57:52 AM

Hey, I’m somewhat new to the game (as in I’ve only played the Xbox 360 version in The Orange Box). What’s a good way to start the game?

Well, it can be a bit of a nightmare to learn since there's so many intricacies to the mechanics that are poorly if at all explained in-game. I'd definitely recommend looking into some guides for new players. I'd also recommend sticking to Medic and the more straightforward classes (Soldier, Pyro, Demo, Heavy), as it's relatively easy to be helpful to the team. Just remember Medic's should be healing their teammates with the medigun the vast majority of the time, avoiding combat unless you have no other choice.

Edited by FGHIK on Aug 2nd 2020 at 5:59:55 AM

Jump into a Payload or Attack/Defense match as Soldier and just feel your way around. That's how I did it.

Avoid CTF like the plague while you're at it.

I honestly think CTF is perfectly fine for casual play.

CTF teaches bad habits if you're new (especially for Engineer players) and never ends.

It's only good for dicking around.

Offline practice against bots is a good way to learn the maps in a low-pressure environment, or brush up on your movement and aiming skills. But the bots won't be using anything but the default weapons, so to start the long, long process of learning what the hell all the unlockable alternates do, you'll have to venture online. Just remember that no matter what weird weapon someone's using, it isn't outright superior to a class' default equipment, and you're never at an unfair disadvantage for using your basic loadout. You might be at a situational disadvantage, though, like if you're on fire but don't have Jarate or Mad Milk.

But as long as you're not running around as your team's fourth Sniper, maining your SMG, you'll be doing better than a lot of inexperienced players.

I'd also recommend the Team Service Announcement series and LazyPurple's "How it FEELS to Play ___" videos, because they're both informative and generally entertaining.

Engineer's a good beginner class because with the Sentry Gun, you can focus less on combat and more on observing other players.

If anything, the most important thing is to simply change your Sentry's positions ever 8 to 10 kills, because in my experience that's when the entire enemy team memorizes your position and attacks you with Ubers or Spies.

Engineer, Medic, Heavy, and Pyro are the best starting classes in my opinion. Engineer is, as described above, a good class for watching what other players do while your machines do most of the work. Medic, Heavy, and Pyro have a lot of complex tricks to learn but are still very helpful to the team even in a beginner's hands; just point at stuff and watch it either heal, burn, or get shredded, depending on which you choose.

If you want to learn how to complete objectives and work as a team, play Attack/Defend or Payload mode. If you want to focus more on getting the hang of combat in a low-pressure environment, play Capture the Flag; that's basically the goof-off mode where everybody's just killing each other.

Engi actually seems a bit confusing for new players in my experience. Knowing when to move up or fall back, where to place buildings to best help your team, metal management. It takes a good bit of experience. Medic is a lot easier to be "decent" at, I think. Even if you're not an expert at timing ubers, as long as you're healing low health players and doing what you can to stay alive, your team should be grateful. A team with a decent medic is still far better off than a team with no medic.